Monthly Archives: June 2010

I’ve finally succumbed in my advancing years to reminiscing about how good things were back in the olden days when I was young. Specifically I remember the days when the rugby league State of Origin was an engaging closely fought contest, instead of the embarrassing mismatch of talent and discipline (aka Qld) vs ineptitude and recklessness (aka NSW) that we saw last night.Bah humbug!

Sam Hilton – huh! those were the days. as far as i can recall there were never good days of NRL

Lachlan Wetherall – No, that’s soccer you’re thinking of – a seemingly endless dismal display of drab and dreary draws… followed by a penalty shootout to decide the result.

I went to a vintage machinery show in Manilla (near Tamworth) on the weekend. As well as a bunch of old farm machinery, they had a display of old cars. One of them was a Morris Minor 1000 (pictured), just like the one my parents had 35 years ago. I went to look inside through the driver’s side window which was partly open and was astonished to find that the car smelled exactly like my parents old car. I was astonished that a particular car/model/make should have such a particularly distinctive smell, and astonished that the memory of that smell has remained so vivid in my memory, despite the fact that it is 35 years since I last sat in a Morris Minor 1000.

The perils of eBay and Lego obsessed children.

I was (formerly) in the habit when logging into eBay of ticking the “Keep me signed in for a day” checkbox. I just found that as a result my 8 year old son has on his own initiative purchased an Indiana Jones whip, that he was missing from one of his Lego sets! Fortunately it was only $3.73. I’m so thankful that he didn’t commit me to purchasing a Lego Star Wars death star or worse.

Just got an iPhone (through work). Followed the instructions and connected it to my PC. Message saying that there was no SIM installed, please disconnect and insert a SIM card. But how? The ‘Getting started’ instructions don’t say anything. The iPhone screen doesn’t help me. The iTunes program doesn’t explain. Examining the phone there is no obvious spot to insert a SIM card. Googling it found me the answer – insert a paper clip through the little hole in the top to eject the tray. No big drama, but once again the idea that Apple products are intuitive and “just work” is exposed as a big fat con job.

Update 13 Feb 2015: To be fair, 5 years on and an upgrade later, I still have an iPhone and I really like it. But that doesn’t change the fact that my first interaction with an iPhone was exceedingly frustrating.

After nearly 2 years of riding my bike I got my first puncture riding home from work this evening. In any fight on any day between this nail and my bike tyre, it’s pretty clear who’s going to come off second best.